humanitarian assistance

Recipients of humanitarian aid and official development assistance (ODA), 2008

Sudan was the largest recipient of humanitarian aid in 2008. It received (US$1.3 billion) from the 22 member governments of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and the European Commission.

US$18 billion for humanitarian assistance

At least US$18 billion was spent worldwide on humanitarian aid in 2008, the latest Global Humanitarian Assistance report, released today in Geneva, shows. This is a significant increase on the estimated US$15 billion spent on humanitarian assistance in 2007.

Public donations accounted for an estimated US$3.1 billion. “Access to reliable and user-friendly information on aid flows makes a real difference” said Judith Randel, Director of Development Initiatives, authors of the report. “30% of urgent humanitarian needs continue to go unmet.

Information for effective response

We want to help build up a better picture of the global response to humanitarian crises so that people involved in policy, programming and performance can provide efficient, effective and coherent response. Our job is to do provide access to clear, transparent and understandable data and information that can help answer some of the big questions about humanitarian aid. We think this means helping people to interpret some of the data as well as just providing and sharing it. We would like this site to provide a space for people to debate the data, share views on humanitarian issues, policy and reform and to discuss the implications for people in crisis.